ESCAPING UTOPIA: CULTURES AFTER COMMUNISM
The swift collapse of communist regimes across Central and Eastern Europe came as a surprise to both their opponents and political clients. How did culture mediate the experience of this political, social, and economic revolution? How does the experience of communism shape the historiography, identity, and vision(s) of the future of the affected nations? What is the condition of postcommunism? These are some of the questions we will be exploring as we examine Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, and South Slavic literature in translation and cinema from the decades following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Prerequisites & course information
Requisites: None Course Designation: Core GenEd - Humanities & Arts Breadth - Humanities Level - Elementary L&S Credit - L&S Liberal Arts and Science Repeatable for Credit: No Last Taught: Fall 2026 Learning Outcomes: 1. identify and discuss main events, figures, themes, concepts, aesthetic devices, ideas, and social changes that have shaped the culture of the region since the collapse of communist regimes Audience: Undergraduate 2. define “postcommunism/post-socialism” as a cultural phenomenon in the context of East-Central Europe Audience: Undergraduate 3. apply basic methods of literary, cinematic, and cultural analysis to interpret a wide range of cultural texts produced in East-Central European countries in the years following the collapse of communism Audience: Undergraduate 4. develop, compare, and effectively express ideas about cultural texts and their underlying semantic structures Audience: Undergraduate Learning Outcomes: 1. identify and discuss main events, figures, themes, concepts, aesthetic devices, ideas, and social changes that have shaped the culture of the region since the collapse of communist regimes Audience: Undergraduate 2. define “postcommunism/post-socialism” as a cultural phenomenon in the context of East-Central Europe Audience: Undergraduate 3. apply basic methods of literary, cinematic, and cultural analysis to interpret a wide range of cultural texts produced in East-Central European countries in the years following the collapse of communism Audience: Undergraduate 4. develop, compare, and effectively express ideas about cultural texts and their underlying semantic structures Audience: Undergraduate
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026-2027